1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image input system for inputting image data, wherein a digital multi-functional peripheral (MFP) having an auxiliary storage device capable of storing image data, a scanner function and a network function is connected to a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is known an image forming system wherein a digital MFP, on the one hand, which has an auxiliary storage device (e.g. hard disk drive) capable of storing image data, a scanner function and a network function, and a personal computer (PC), on the other, are connected to a network such as a LAN. When a user, who is present at the place of his/her PC, is to take in image data into his/her PC by using the digital MFP, he/she goes to the place of the digital MFP from the PC, and performs a scanning operation and stores image data in the auxiliary storage device.
Using the network function, a controller of the digital MFP stores the image data taken in by the scanner function in the form of a file in a public folder (directory) made public in a protocol compatible with a file sharing function of the PC. The public folder is set to be accessible by any user's PC by authentication.
When the user inspects, edits and saves the image data scanned by the digital MFP on his/her PC, he/she activates a specified application (program), accesses the public folder of the digital MFP via the network, performs a process for saving an image data file in a local drive (HDD, etc.) of his/her own PC, and then opens the file.
In this prior-art method, however, time-consuming procedures have to be carried out for the pre-setting of the digital MFP, the scanning operation, the taking-in of the image data file, the activation of the application, and the opening of the file. Moreover, a great deal of time and labor is required when a large volume of image data files are processed.
In order to carry out these procedures, the user has to be familiar with not only the operations of the digital MFP, but also the operations (network application) of the PC. Thus, these procedures cannot be carried out by anyone, without appropriate skills.
Conventional solutions to these problems will now be described.
When image data taken in by the scanner function of the digital MFP is stored as an image data file in a public folder in a controller of the digital MFP, a setting file is created to describe the title of the file, the location, the date/time, group access information, etc. The setting file is stored along with the image data file.
On the other hand, agent software for always executing a program in the background processing is installed in the PC of the user. The agent software accesses the public folder in the controller of the digital MFP via the network, and acquires a secondary file of the image data file.
The agent software stores an image data file in an auxiliary storage device (e.g. HDD) of the PC on the basis of the information in the acquired secondary file. The agent software deletes the description of the image data file, with respect to which the processing of the secondary file has been finished, and stores once again the resultant file in the public folder of the controller of the digital MFP via the network.
In this method, software has to be installed both in the digital MFP (scanner function section) and the client PC. It is difficult to apply this method to a network to which a digital MFP not matching with the software is connected.
Besides, when image data is to be made public in the public folder of the digital MFP, the procedure for authorizing access by the user is complex, and, in many cases, access is permitted to all clients' PCs without authentication. As a result, there was a case where image data temporarily stored in the digital MFP was inspected by an unauthorized user other than the owner of the image data, and a secret leaked.